Prison Speech

Focusing on the similarities in the lives of monks and prisoners, the director of a prison project told a group at Phillips Brooks House Monday night that some prisoners can be helped by meditation.

Bo Lozoff, director of the Prison Ashram project, said he has helped compile prayer and meditation techniques from major religions into a manual to help prisoners cope with their environment.

Lozoff said a cloistered life, regular hours and inaccessibility to friends and relatives are among the characteristics shared by monks and prisoners.

Visitor

Although the program does not actively recruit prisoners, Lozoff said he has visited many prisons across the country and has counseled more than 3 per cent of the entire prison population in the United States.

He added that while there are "many people whom I would not like to see on the streets now, the way in which we treat people who we lock up now is inhumane."